Bonfire 1999 Memories

This is a collection of stories about the Bonfire 1999 collapse. If you have a story to share, please email me at aggieelf@yahoo.com, or add as a comment on the board.

Friday, November 19, 2004

Christin O. " Silence to hear the Moans"

Toby called me at 5:30 am. He told me that bonfire fell, but he and all of his buddies were okay. I asked him what was going on. He told me he had to go, but he said that I should turn on the news. I turned on the TV and every channel had bonfire. I called my parents and told them what happened and that I was okay and so was Toby. I got off the phone and sat in silence staring at the TV. I got dressed and went to class. I had a 8am Socio class that day. We talked about Bonfire. I just stared out the window. I remember Toby telling me the day before that their outfit was supposed to work on Bonfire that night, but there had been an early morning rehearsal called. I just kept thinking about the people still out there. She kept us in class the entire class period. I had Anth next in the O&M building. I remember looking up as I walked into the building and seeing a helicopter. My prof released class 5 minutes after it started. When I walked back out of the building there were so many helicopters hovering around that I could not count them. I went to the stack next. The workers would ask us to be quiet so we could hear if anyone was moaning. I could not believe that this was happening. I went to meet Toby after about an hour. He told me that at about 3am the fire alarm had gone off. Everyone left the dorm. The leaders of A-batt told them what was going on. They counted to make sure that everyone was there. I told him how weird it was that the night before we had been driving past Bonfire saying it looked like it was leaning. This just could not really be happening. I watched the memorial on TV. I was worried that several members of my sorority associate class had not checked in. Finally by about 8pm everyone did. Toby called after the memorial. He said that everyone was going to stack to help. I told him I wanted to be there. He said he would not be able to stand with me. I said I didn't care; I just needed to be near him. So we went to stack until about 12 am that night. Everything was so strange for the next few weeks. Campus was silent. Classes were cancelled, tests postponed. We were supposed to take our national sorority test the next week. The national leaders called to tell us it was postponed and to offer their condolences. I got emails from friends from high school asking if Toby and I were okay. Everything was just kind of in an uproar. That is what I remember most about Bonfire.

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